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If you haven't read the book massive spoilers ahead...

It's been years since I've read the book but is it ever explicitly said what Daenerys' motive was for putting the dragon eggs, Mirri Maz Duur, and herself into Drogo's funeral pyre?

Did she know this would hatch the dragon eggs? Suspect it? Or was it pure grief and desperation?

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  • @Ageon The answer on Was Daenerys actually trying to hatch the eggs? is superior by an order of magnitude to any of the current answers here, but isn't this question the more broadly worded one? Meaning that the other question is a subset of this one? reference
    – Memnoch
    May 8, 2017 at 12:00
  • I solely cast my vote based on the premise that the answer there deals with the possibilities that was she acting out of grief? Did she suspect something would happen? So in my humble opinion, it would work for this question as well. You can however take this to meta and let the community decide. If Community consensus is to reopen this post and close that one, I will certainly cast a reopen vote
    – Aegon
    May 8, 2017 at 12:22
  • Or if you prefer, we could add the bit about grief factor into that post as well, which would make both questions essentially the same
    – Aegon
    May 8, 2017 at 12:25

3 Answers 3

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No, it was not explicitly said. But she suspected that massive heat would hatch the eggs. She got the idea through her dreams while she was pregnant. She tried to hatch one before, putting an egg in a brazier, but the temperature was not high enough for the dragon to hatch. BTW, she didn't put herself into the funeral pyre. She stood quite near, but not in it.

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    Multiple wiki sources indicate that she did actually walk into the funeral pyre, and her comments in A Dance With Dragons agree.
    – Beofett
    Feb 7, 2012 at 17:17
  • @Beofett: I will re-read the passage in A Game Of Thrones, still reading A Dance With Dragons.
    – Rainer
    Feb 7, 2012 at 17:38
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    I found my book. She didn't put herself in the pyre, but she walked very close to it and then "the pyre collapsed and came down around her."
    – Memnoch
    Feb 8, 2012 at 1:33
  • @Memnoch: Thanks, you got it first :-)
    – Rainer
    Feb 8, 2012 at 4:13
  • I think she had already begun to suspect by this point that she was impervious to fire - unlike her brother. By walking into the flames and coming out alive, I suppose it's a symbolic gesture - and all the more reason her tiny khalasar devoted themselves to her afterwards. She walks into the flames and comes out alive. Dragons or no, how many people do you see that do that?
    – Lou
    Jun 4, 2014 at 21:21
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Her final act of birthing dragons on Drogo's funeral pyre shadows the act of Azor Ahai forging Lightbringer by thrusting his sword through the heart of his beloved wife Nissa Nissa. When put into context of the theory that Daenerys is Azor Ahai reborn, and the dragons are her version of Lightbringer, it may be reasonable to assume that some form of divine guidance took place, and Dany was led through the process.

It is interesting to note that while many Targaryens throughout history have tried to hatch dragons and failed, Daenerys has no such overt ambition. She merely acts on instinct, and through anger at Mirri Maaz Duur. She has no knowledge of past attempts, of techniques used, or of magic, beyond what Mirri has told her of blood magic.

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  • Mirri told her of her magic blood?
    – user4951
    Aug 10, 2013 at 9:10
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    @JimThio No, "blood magic", not "magic blood"...
    – TLP
    Aug 12, 2013 at 8:37
  • I've removed your spoiler tags as it's been 5 years and the TV show is well known.
    – Edlothiad
    May 8, 2017 at 10:34
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I agree it was mere instinct from her bloodline. But hatching the dragons was unintentional. I also think seeing her brother die indirectly of fire made her feel something in herself, that she was the dragon of her generation, and she knew that already because Viserys had died of fire, and not her. So in irrational thinking, she concluded she is the dragon. She walked into the pyre because she had concluded earlier when Viserys died that she was the dragon. But the instinct as well—the fire and perhaps the dragon eggs called to her.

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